Green Space Can Build Community Cohesion

Land Trust Chief Executive, Euan Hall, says that well-managed green space has the ability to bring communities together as the national land management charity publishes its 2017-18 annual report.

Hall said: “We are not just about cutting the grass and litter picking. We are about engaging positively with new communities to understand how they wish their open space to be managed.

“It is our belief that well managed green space is the catalyst that creates healthy, resilient and sustainable communities.

“Building new homes is vitally important to the country, but it is the green infrastructure around these homes that is key to bringing new communities together, creating support networks and providing space for healthy activity and outdoor education.” Hall also paid tribute to the significant contribution made by volunteers.

“Volunteers play an absolutely vital role in local communities and the Land Trust is fortunate enough to be able to draw upon a vast network of people at our sites across the country.

“While the Land Trust benefits hugely from the work they carry out, we also work extremely hard to ensure that volunteers get back as much as they put in. This could be in the form of some professional training or qualification to help them with the work they carry out on our sites or in the mental and physical benefits they get from spending time outdoors in green space.”

While the Land Trust is not especially active in our section of the South East, the fact that a repsected national organisation is emphasising the importance of green spaces, community networks and volunteering must surely be a sign useful to ongoing developments in Hastings.

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